The new midfielders arrived at White Hart Lane in August for a combined fee in excess of £40 million, with the Argentine making his bow in the north London derby defeat to Arsenal but the former Ajax man was not registered in time.

Villas-Boas is wary of the lack of time the new signings have spent with the squad following their recent arrivals but is keen to intergrate them into the pace of the Premier League as soon as possible.

"Will he [Eriksen] be in the line-up this weekend? There is a big possibility but it’s not a certainty yet," Villas-Boas told reporters.

"The market finished last Monday and we signed three players that trained for the first time with us on Friday two weeks ago. They have since departed to international duty, and we’ve just seen him back [on Thursday].

"To train with the team, to have the experiences with their colleagues - for Eriksen, for Vlad [Chiriches] and Lamela - they haven’t had enough time to bond together so it’s something we have to work on."

The former Chelsea boss suggested Lamela is unlikely to start against Norwich, having not trained with his team-mates despite featuring against Arsenal.

"[Lamela] is going to suffer problems of adaptation, bearing in mind the fact that he doesn’t speak a word of English. He has to adapt to a completely different culture and mentality.

"Also the Premier League is very specific in its intensity. It’s nothing like the Argentinean league or Serie A, so that will require some kind of adaptation, but for somebody so gifted it shouldn’t be a problem. He is a wonderful, gifted footballer.

"The fact that he’s yet to train with the team puts him in a very difficult position to start the game, but it’s not impossible."

Elsewhere, fellow new signing Vlad Chiriches is yet to have his work permit finalised, Gylfi Sigurdsson missed training on Thursday with a dead leg and Emmanuel Adebayor has been granted extended leave due to "personal reasons".